and the land of chrome, glass, tile floors and lanais.
Which is what I see here in homes.
It's nice and makes for comfortable living but there is somewhat of a sterility to it that makes me miss a couple of well worn kitchen tables and distressed wood floors I've sat at and walked on in New England.
One was at my oldest friends and it was a genuine antique they got somewhere and instead of putting it on a pedastal somewhere they used it every single day. The floor in their home was wide pine boards that had been there for a couple of centuries. The floor, while well worn was clean and properly taken care of. I have wonderful memories of that home, which had been built in ghe 1700s.
One time I commented I could picture a colonial family sitting by a black and white TV watching the news and looking at George Washington on his beautiful white horse that was really light grey but looked white on the old TV sets of the day. My friend smirked and his wife looked confused for a second and then quickly figured it was juat another one of my 'Far Side' comments.
Sometimes when I returned to the old neighborhood between adventures I would drop by with little notice and my friends would alway ask why I didn't call ahead a few days so we could do something together.
I told them that I was more than content either sitting with them at their kitchen table or enjoying them watching a fire with them in their den.
(In Florida visiting my sisters I made it clear that they didn't have to find places to take me. I just wanted to spend time wth them and just hang out.)
The kitchen table that I was thinking of when I started this post was another table I loved to sit at once.
An old classmate was raking leaves when I drove by so I stopped and we started talking. After a few minutes he said, "Hell, let's go inside."
He sat me down at an immaculate but very well worn kitchen table that was far from the chrome and glass sterility I saw in Florida. It was a wonderful piece of furniture that spoke to me of lives lived. I just knew a couple of generations of kids had done their homework there and there were a couple of scratches left by various science fair projects and other family activities. The table gave off vibrations of warmth and of countless meals eaten off of it along with being one of the centers of family activities.
My classmate had made his career as a contractor running machinery and I'd bet that early on in his career he had kept the books at it after the evening meal, as had his father because he had moved into the place he grew up in after his parents had passed.
Hopefully I'll run into him again and get to go into his wonderul kitchen for another cup of coffee.
One thing I have to give Florida credit for is the lanai. It's actually a Hawaiian for a screened in porch or veranda and the term has taken root here. They are outside and are a wonderful place to take meals and just hang out in, free from insects which I have been told populate the area at various seasonal times.
Breakfast (my favorite meal of the day) is a joy to eat out on a lanai as the day begins.
(Needless to say, the BEST breakfasts are at a Waffle House next to the strip joint at 0300 because of the free floor show but I digress.)
Maybe more later.
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